Relationships of vervet mothers with sons and daughters from one through three years of age

Social relationships between mothers and juvenile offspring were examined in captive, socially-living vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus) to assess the effects of offspring age and sex, and the mother's dominance rank on behavioural interactions. The results indicate that both high-and low-ranking mothers approach and groom their daughters more than they approach and groom their sons. The frequency of both aggressive behaviour toward offspring and support of offspring in agonistic encounters with other group members is influenced by the mother's dominance rank, but not by offsprin sex. Compared to sons, daughters (particularly daughters of high-ranking females) approach and groom their mothers more often, and support their mothers more often in intra-group aggression. The results are discussed in terms of several predictions from parental investment theory and the concept of mutualism.     

Social rank,feeding and winter weight loss in red deer: any evidence of interference competition?

During winter at northern latitudes, large herbivores often exploit patches of concentrated, relatively high quality forage, which may lead to interference competition. The factors affecting success in contests and subsequent dominance rank, such as age and body weight, remain key issues in ungulate behavioural ecology. Maternal effects on offspring body weight are well known, but few studies have investigated if mothers social rank influence offspring rank. Moreover, no study has related dominance rank in ungulates to weight loss during winter. Outcomes of social interactions (n=7,609), feeding time and spatial position in red deer (Cervus elaphus) hinds and calves, and weight loss of calves, were registered from 1981 to 1996 at six winter-feeding sites within the county of Sør-Trøndelag in Norway. The level of aggressiveness was higher among calves than among adult hinds, and the factors determining the outcome of contests also differed. The initiator won the majority of interactions (more than 90% in both hinds and calves). Social rank was related to both age and body weight in adult hinds, and related to body weight and mother rank in calves. The relationship between feeding time and rank was non-linear. Feeding time was correlated with rank only among high ranked hinds, while there was no such relationship among low ranked hinds or calves. There was no correlation between winter weight loss and social rank in calves. Our study therefore underlines that, although frequent aggression is observed at artificial feeding sites of northern herbivores, this is not necessarily sufficient to give rise to interference competition.     

Habitat preference in the dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis): The role of photoperiod and dominance

Wild-caught dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis), simultaneously presented with projected slides of their winter and summer habitats, demonstrated distinct preferences (in terms of time spent in front of particular slides) consistent with their season of capture and prior laboratory experience. Juncos caught in and kept on winter or summer photoperiods preferred winter and summer habitat slides respectively. A gradual increase in photoperiod up to natural summer conditions induced a switch from winter to summer habitat preference: a decrease in photoperiod induced a range of slide preferences correlated with the junco's size, a measure of the bird's dominance rank.     

Nepotistic alarm calling in the Siberian jay, Perisoreus infaustus

From a life history perspective, parents have an incentive to protect their reproductive investment, and so may provide care even after their offspring are independent. Such prolonged parental care could lead to postponed dispersal of the offspring and thereby facilitate the formation of kin groups. We tested whether alpha birds in Siberian jays protected their independent, retained offspring by giving alarm calls during simulated predator attacks. We compared the responses to predator attacks simulated by flying a hawk model over a dyad of birds on a feeder for dyads composed of an alpha bird and either a relative or a nonrelative. Alpha females were nepotistic in their alarm-calling behaviour, in that they called more frequently when accompanied by their retained offspring than by unrelated immigrants, but alpha males called indiscriminately. This difference in alarm calling could reflect dominance relationships in Siberian jay groups, because the presence of immigrants may be less costly to alpha males, but alpha females are more vulnerable to competition from immigrants. Alarm calls were usually given during escape, when both individuals in the dyad had left the feeding site. However, results of a playback experiment suggest that alarm calls conveyed information about danger and incited an immediate escape reaction. Our results indicate that alarm calling can be nepotistic, and that factors other than kinship influence alarm-calling behaviour. Nepotistic antipredator behaviours are benefits that offspring can gain only in their natal territory. Hence, in the absence of preferential treatment by their parents, offspring may be more likely to disperse and kin groups are prevented from forming.     

Dominance and feeding competition in captive rhesus monkeys

The feeding behavior of 16 adult female rhesus monkeys living in three captive social groups was observed. Estimates of relative food intake, feeding rate, and location of feeding in relation to food sources were compared between females of different dominance ranks. Higher-ranking females had greater access to feeding sites and were supplanted or threatened less frequently while feeding than subordinates. However, no consistent differences in estimates of total intake were found between females of high and females of low rank. The effects of dominance on feeding behavior were most pronounced in the group receiving the least food relative to estimates of overall group nutritional requirements. Higher-ranking females, both over the long term and during the study period, tended to produce more surviving offspring. The effects of dominance on reproductive performance appeared to be less related to food intake than to competitive and aggressive interactions, potentially resulting in higher levels of stress for subordinates.     

Inheritance of Acquired Behaviour Adaptations and Brain Gene Expression in Chickens

Background

Environmental challenges may affect both the exposed individuals and their offspring. We investigated possible adaptive aspects of such cross-generation transmissions, and hypothesized that chronic unpredictable food access would cause chickens to show a more conservative feeding strategy and to be more dominant, and that these adaptations would be transmitted to the offspring.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Parents were raised in an unpredictable (UL) or in predictable diurnal light rhythm (PL, 12∶12 h light∶dark). In a foraging test, UL birds pecked more at freely available, rather than at hidden and more attractive food, compared to birds from the PL group. Female offspring of UL birds, raised in predictable light conditions without parental contact, showed a similar foraging behavior, differing from offspring of PL birds. Furthermore, adult offspring of UL birds performed more food pecks in a dominance test, showed a higher preference for high energy food, survived better, and were heavier than offspring of PL parents. Using cDNA microarrays, we found that the differential brain gene expression caused by the challenge was mirrored in the offspring. In particular, several immunoglobulin genes seemed to be affected similarly in both UL parents and their offspring. Estradiol levels were significantly higher in egg yolk from UL birds, suggesting one possible mechanism for these effects.

Conclusions/Significance

Our findings suggest that unpredictable food access caused seemingly adaptive responses in feeding behavior, which may have been transmitted to the offspring by means of epigenetic mechanisms, including regulation of immune genes. This may have prepared the offspring for coping with an unpredictable environment.     

Behavioral Profiles Related to Dominance Hierarchy in Associated Foundresses of Belonogaster juncea juncea (F.) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

This study was conducted to examine the phenomenon of task partitioning among associations of foundresses of the primitively eusocial wasp Belonogaster juncea juncea (F.). The time–activity budget for five main behavioral categories (foraging, building, feeding, inactivity, and reproduction) for each foundress belonging to trigynic associations was recorded using the instantaneous scanning technique. After ranking the individuals on the basis of agonistic encounters, data were submitted to a canonical discriminant analysis. The results show behavioral differences between individuals of each rank. The proportion of time allocated to foraging behavior is a good rank index. The females of the first rank spent less time on foraging behavior and significantly more time (13.6% of their time) on reproductive behavior than females of other ranks. The females of the second rank also spent less time on foraging behavior and showed a tendency toward building behavior. The females of the third rank spent significantly more time (77.28% of their time) on foraging behavior. The behavioral profile of each foundress was therefore determined by its rank on the dominance scale.     

Models of parent-offspring conflict. V. Effects of the behaviour of the two parents

In the absence of any parent-offspring conflict, the total parental investment per offspring should be less when two parents collaborate in caring for the offspring than when only one parent invests. This does not necessarily mean that offspring fare less well when both parents invest. The ‘ideal’ amount of parental investment for an offspring to take is always greater than is ‘ideal’ for the parent to allocate (Trivers 1974). The offspring's optimum is higher if the offspring's action affects the reproductive success of only one parent and lower if both parents are affected (e.g. two-parent investment, or lifelong monogamy). The difference between the parental optimum and the offspring optimum depends on the mating system and on the form of conflict (between successive broods, or within broods), and prescribes a ‘conflict range’. The extent of conflict cannot be deduced solely from a knowledge of the average relatedness between siblings. The conflict is likely to be resolved by an ESS in which intermediate (compromise) levels of investment are paid out to offspring, which nevertheless continue to make costly demands for yet more investment. The degree of conflict can be measured by the extent to which offspring subject their parents to aggressive demands for extra investment, and is likely to be greater when two parents collaborate equally over investment than when only one parent invests. When only one parent invests, conflict is higher if sibling-competition is between siblings in the same broods (intra-brood) than when it is between progeny in successive broods (inter-brood). However, the reverse will tend to be the case when both parents invest equally.     

Winter resource wealth drives delayed dispersal and family-group living in western bluebirds

Delayed dispersal, where offspring remain with parents beyond the usual period of dependence, is the typical route leading to formation of kin-based cooperative societies. The prevailing explanations for why offspring stay home are variation in resource wealth, in which offspring of wealthy parents benefit disproportionately by staying home, and nepotism, where the tendency for parents to be less aggressive and share food with offspring makes home a superior place to wait to breed. These hypotheses are not strict alternatives, as only wealthy parents have sufficient resources to share. In western bluebirds, Sialia mexicana, sons usually delay dispersal until after winter, gaining feeding advantages through maternal nepotism in a familial winter group. Experimentally reducing resource wealth (mistletoe) by half on winter territories caused sons to disperse in summer, even though their parents remained on the territory during the winter. Only 8% of sons remained with their parents on mistletoe-removal territories compared to 50% of sons on control territories (t(9,10)=3.33, p<0.005). This study is the first to demonstrate that experimentally reducing wealth of a natural food resource reduces delayed dispersal, facilitating nepotism and family-group living. The results clarify the roles of year-round residency, resource limitation and relative wealth outside the breeding season in facilitating the formation of kin-based cooperative societies.     

Social Relationships Among Ring-Tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta) in Two Free-Ranging Troops at Berenty Reserve, Madagascar

We observed two free-ranging troops of ring-tailed lemurs at the Berenty Reserve, Madagascar. Kinship affinities in these troops are known only for mothers and their offspring 4 years of age. We attempted to quantify social relationships. Almost all agonistic interactions were dyadic, and triadic agonistic interactions, such as alliances, were very rare. Dominance hierarchies in both sexes in the two troops were not linear. As in cercopithecine monkeys, mothers were dominant over their adult daughters. However, the daughters were not ranked immediately below their mothers. Close proximity and social grooming occurred more frequently between closely related females, such as mother–daughter and sister–sister dyads, than between unrelated females. Frequent-proximity relations also occurred between adult males that had emigrated from another troop and entered the present troop together, even though they did not rank closely to one another. Subordinates were likely to groom and to greet dominants more frequently than vice versa. During group encounters, particular females were involved in agonistic interactions with animals of other troops, regardless of dominance rank. Adult males, regardless of their dominance rank, but not adult females, constantly tried to drive solitary males away.     

Colony composition,social behavior and some ecological characteristics of the Korean wood-feeding cockroach (Cryptocercus kyebangensis)

Korean populations of the genus Cryptocercus occur in forested mountains throughout South Korea. They live in monogamous associations in which parents care for their young in complex woody galleries. Single paired adults (23.2%) and one or both parents with their offspring (28.1%) were found most frequently in the field. Among single-parent families adult females (6.7%) were observed more frequently than adult males (1.4%). In families with single or both parents, the mean brood size was 21.6+/-9.4. Oothecae were observed from mid-June to the late July. Oothecae were found in the galleries of only paired adults and never found in families with nymphs. The mean number of eggs per female was 73.7+/-29.8. Most of neonates grew to the third or fourth instar prior to the winter. During the winter, C. kyebangensis in the field remained almost frozen in their galleries, but ones kept in the laboratory continued to grow during winter. Some characteristics of proctodeal feeding behavior are also described based on laboratory observations. We propose that the cold temperate climate, especially of the winter season, is one of the most important causes for the evolution of unusual life history of Cryptocercus including delayed development of nymphs.     

Role-Reversed Nepotism Among Cubs and Sires in the Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta)

Nepotism is widespread among parents and offspring, and is typically associated with fundamental asymmetries; parents can usually do more to help their offspring than vice versa, and the cost of a given nepotistic behavior is usually less for parents than for offspring. This may not be so among spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta); sires never achieve social rank equal to that of their cubs, to whom they provide no obvious paternal care. Nepotism by sires towards their cubs is thus socially constrained. However, the higher social status of cubs might offset cubs’ developmental disadvantages and permit nepotistic treatment of sires by offspring. We therefore sought to determine whether the interactions among spotted hyena cubs and adult males were influenced by kinship, using long‐term observations from one clan of spotted hyenas. Sires exhibited no overt nepotism towards their cubs in most behaviors, but they did associate more closely with their daughters than with unrelated control females. Sires also associated more closely with their daughters than with their sons, with whom they associated no more closely than they did with unrelated control males. Cubs favored their sires by directing less intense aggression towards them than towards unrelated control males. Cubs of both sexes also associated more closely with their sires than with control males after the cubs were independent of the clan's communal den. Although sires evidently recognize their offspring, paternal nepotism by sires towards their cubs is weaker than filial nepotism by cubs towards their sires. The small size and immaturity of cubs thus appear to be weaker constraints on nepotism than is the low social status of their sires.     

Disruption of Parenting Behaviors in California Mice,a Monogamous Rodent Species,by Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals

The nature and extent of care received by an infant can affect social, emotional and cognitive development, features that endure into adulthood. Here we employed the monogamous, California mouse (Peromyscus californicus), a species, like the human, where both parents invest in offspring care, to determine whether early exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC: bisphenol A, BPA; ethinyl estradiol, EE) of one or both parents altered their behaviors towards their pups. Females exposed to either compound spent less time nursing, grooming and being associated with their pups than controls, although there was little consequence on their weight gain. Care of pups by males was less affected by exposure to BPA and EE, but control, non-exposed females appeared able to “sense” a male partner previously exposed to either compound and, as a consequence, reduced their own parental investment in offspring from such pairings. The data emphasize the potential vulnerability of pups born to parents that had been exposed during their own early development to EDC, and that effects on the male, although subtle, also have consequences on overall parental care due to lack of full acceptance of the male by the female partner.     

Contrasting the Effects of Maternal and Behavioral Characteristics on Fawn Birth Mass in White-Tailed Deer

Maternal care influences offspring quality and can improve a mother’s inclusive fitness. However, improved fitness may only occur when offspring quality (i.e., offspring birth mass) persists throughout life and enhances survival and/or reproductive success. Although maternal body mass, age, and social rank have been shown to influence offspring birth mass, the inter-dependence among these variables makes identifying causation problematic. We established that fawn birth mass was related to adult body mass for captive male and female white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), thus maternal care should improve offspring fitness. We then used path analysis to identify which maternal characteristic(s) most influenced fawn birth mass of captive female white-tailed deer. Maternal age, body mass and social rank had varying effects on fawn birth mass. Maternal body mass displayed the strongest direct effect on fawn birth mass, followed by maternal age and social rank. Maternal body mass had a greater effect on social rank than age. The direct path between social rank and fawn birth mass may indicate dominance as an underlying mechanism. Our results suggest that heavier mothers could use dominance to improve access to resources, resulting in increased fitness through production of heavier offspring.     

Effects of parental care on offspring growth in the Korean wood-feeding cockroach, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cryptocercus kyebangensis</Emphasis>

The objective of this study was to measure the possible effects of prolonged parental care on offspring growth in Korean wood-feeding cockroaches, Cryptocercus kyebangensis. In the field-caught subsocial woodroaches of C. kyebangensis, offspring with both parents were greater in both head width and body weight than those with single parents. Manipulation experiments showed that offspring separated from their parents could survive independently without parents, but they grew more rapidly when they remained with their parents. In particular, the effects of parental care on offspring growth were found to be stronger in groups with both parents than those with single parents. These results suggest that the prolonged parental care evolved in Cryptocercus has a significant impact on offspring growth. Electronic Publication     

Feeding tactics in juvenile rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

In a group of rhesus monkeys, feeding tactics of juveniles were studied in a competitive situation in which food presentation had been modified, and where food was supplied in a feeding trough six times a day. Juvenile offspring of high-ranking mothers remained longer in the feeding area gathering food. In contrast, juvenile offspring of low-ranking mothers went less often to the feeding area, primarily to collect food. Low-ranking juveniles also gathered the food faster than did dominants and used longer feeding bouts. High-ranking juveniles interrupted their feeding more spontaneously than did subordinate ones. Low-ranking juveniles did so more often as a result of avoiding and being startled. Juvenile males entered the feeding area to satisfy their food requirements more often than females, but were also aggressively expelled more than females. No relation was found between age in months of juveniles and any feeding parameters or causes of interruption. Nor were significant differences found between young and old juveniles. Juvenile rhesus appear to use different tactics in accessing food according to their sex and to their mothers' dominance rank.     

Shared or Unshared Parental Care in Overwintering Brent Geese (Branta bernicla hrota)

We examine brood size effects on the behaviour of wintering parent and juvenile brent geese (Branta bernicla hrota) to test predictions of shared and unshared parental care models. The behaviour of both parents and offspring appear to be influenced by declining food availability over the winter. Parental vigilance increased with brood size and may be explained by vigilance having functions in addition to antipredator behaviour where the benefits are shared among the brood. There was no increase in parental aggression with brood size and this does not fit the prediction of shared care. Nevertheless, large families are able to monopolize better feeding areas compared with smaller families and large families static feed more but walk feed less than do small families, the former apparently being the preferred mode. The presence of additional young, rather than increasing the amount of parental aggression, seems to enhance the family's competitive ability. Because parents with large broods benefit from enhanced access to resources there is likely to be no additional significant cost in the parental care of larger broods (sensu Trivers 1972 ).     

Patient Parents: Do Offspring Decide on the Timing of Fledging in Zebra Finches?

Parent–offspring conflict over parental care is predicted to become most pronounced during offspring transition to independence when offspring are predicted to attempt to extend care for longer than parents are selected to provide it. However, on the proximate level, it is difficult to determine who plays the most important role in this process, parents or offspring. For several vertebrate taxa, it has been documented that parents end brood care by abandoning offspring after a fixed period or else show high flexibility in the duration of care, but teasing apart the role of offspring and parents underlying this flexibility has been difficult. Here, we studied the decision to fledge in captive zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), an altricial songbird. We experimentally delayed the time of fledging to determine who decides about the end of feeding inside the nest, parents or offspring. The experiment indicates that parents do not primarily rely on phenotypic offspring traits in their decision to feed offspring in the nest, but appear to adjust the duration of parental care as long as offspring are in the nest which parents may take as an indicator of offspring need and locomotor abilities. Delayed‐fledging offspring appeared not to suffer a disadvantage in terms of age at the onset of independent feeding. Our study suggests that, in zebra finches, offspring play a major role in determining the time of fledging and leave the nest on their own, possibly to reduce the risk of nest predation, or to evade sibling competition in the nest.     

The pay‐offs of maternal care increase as offspring develop,favouring extended provisioning in an egg‐feeding frog

Offspring quantity and quality are components of parental fitness that cannot be maximized simultaneously. When the benefits of investing in offspring quality decline, parents are expected to shift investment towards offspring quantity (other reproductive opportunities). Even when mothers retain complete control of resource allocation, offspring control whether to allocate investment to growth or development towards independence, and this shared control may generate parent–offspring conflict over the duration of care. We examined these predictions by, in a captive colony, experimentally removing tadpoles of the strawberry poison frog (Oophaga pumilio) from the mothers that provision them with trophic eggs throughout development. Tadpoles removed from their mothers were no less likely to survive to nutritional independence (i.e. through metamorphosis) than were those that remained with their mothers, but these offspring were smaller at metamorphosis and were less likely to survive to reach adult size, even though they were fed ad libitum. Tadpoles that remained with their mothers developed more slowly than those not receiving care, a pattern that might suggest that offspring extracted more care than was in mothers’ best interests. However, the fitness returns of providing care increased with offspring development, suggesting that mothers would be best off continuing care until tadpoles initiated metamorphosis. Although the benefits of parental investment in offspring quality are often thought to asymptote at high levels, driving parent–offspring conflict over weaning, this assumption may not hold over natural ranges of investment, with selection on both parents and offspring favouring extended durations of parental care.     

Parental preferences for the facial traits of their offspring's partners can enhance parental inclusive fitness

Physical appearance provides a wealth of information concerning an individual's biological fitness and reproductive quality, but we do not know whether parents make use of this information when evaluating potential partners for their offspring. This is critical to our understanding of human mate choice, because parents frequently influence their offspring's mating decisions, either directly, for instance through arranged marriages, or indirectly, through manipulating their offspring's partner choice. Here, we used facial images that varied in attractiveness, masculinity, health, and symmetry to assess both reproductively-aged daughters' and their parents' preferences in potential mates for the daughters. In line with our predictions, both daughters and their parents had clear preferences for markers of genetic quality, although the daughters showed significantly stronger preferences for these markers than their parents. Contrary to previous research, parents and daughters did not have stronger preferences for markers of genetic quality if they perceived the daughter to be more attractive. Parents' preferences for the facial markers of genetic quality in their offspring's partner may help maximize inclusive fitness.